Switchboard: an online extension of the Vera List Center’s live programs that links them to debates, issues, and people within and outside The New School.

Founded in 1992 and named in honor of the late philanthropist Vera List, the Vera List Center for Art and Politics embodies The New School’s historic commitment to the arts. It is the site for public discourse on the role of the arts in society at large.

The center organizes various programs that respond to some of the pressing social and political issues of our time as they are articulated by the academic community and visual and performing artists. It enhances the university’s educational mission by bringing together scholars and students, the people of New York, and national and international audiences in an exploration of new possibilities for civic engagement.

Contact and Staff
The Vera List Center for Art and Politics at The New School
Alvin Johnson-J.M. Kaplan Hall
66 West 12th Street, Room 918
New York, New York 10011

Phone: 212.229.2436
Email: vlc@newschool.edu

Carin Kuoni, Director
The Vera List Center is directed by Carin Kuoni (M.A. University of Zurich; B.A. Sorbonne). An art historian by education, and a curator and critic by practice, Kuoni was previously director of exhibitions at Independent Curators International (ICI) and director of the Swiss Institute New York. She has curated and co-curated over twenty international exhibitions, and has written for a number of international publications. A founding member of the artists’ collective REPOhistory, she is the editor of Energy Plan for the Western Man: Joseph Beuys in America (New York: Four Walls Eight Windows, 1990 [paperback 1993]), and Words of Wisdom: A Curator’s Vade Mecum on Contemporary Art (New York: ICI, 2001). Her exhibition The Puppet Show (co-curated with Ingrid Schaffner) toured nationally from 2008-2009; in 2008, she curated OURS: Democracy in the Age of Branding for Parsons The New School for Design.

Annie Shaw, Senior Office Assistant
Administrative support for the Vera List Center is provided by Annie Shaw (M.F.A. Columbia; B.A. Washington University). Before joining the VLC in 2010, she co-organized the Visiting Artists Lecture Series at Columbia University, and worked as the Program Assistant at Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions. As an artist and community organizer, she conceived and produced a five-year site-specific project series Leefahsalung at the New China Town Barber Shop. She is also a founding member of Outpost for Contemporary Art. Her work has been shown at La Casa Enciendida of Madrid, LAXART, and Monte Vista Projects.

Julie Hartshorn-Snavely, Archivist
The Vera List Center program archives have been organized by Julie Hartshorn-Snavely (B.A. , Ohio State University) who is also administrating the Vera List New School Art Collection Writing Award. She worked in finance before joining VLC in 2008. Hartshorn-Snavely was appointed VLC Archivist in the spring of 2010.

Student Employees 2009-10
Tess Drahman, NSGS, Graduate Program in Media Studies
Alyssa Herman, NSGS, Graduate Program in International Affairs

We welcome your feedback. Please contact us at vlc@newschool.edu for any suggestions, responses, inquiries and we’ll respond as soon as possible.